Xi Jinping began an unprecedented third term as China’s president on Friday after he was endorsed by a unanimous vote from the National People’s Congress (NPC).
Xi will head a party and government team tasked with steering the world’s second-largest economy through challenges at home and abroad over the next five years.
All 2,952 NPC members who attended Friday’s meeting voted for the president. In all, the legislative body has a membership of 2,977.
Analysts say it will be a critical period for both Xi and China as he needs to put the country back on an economic growth path to convince the world that China’s unique governance and development model works and that his ambitious political legacy is within reach amid intensified rivalry with the US, the potential for conflict over Taiwan and concerns about the economic impact of China’s rapidly ageing population.
Xi’s trusted allies will be appointed to key government roles in the remaining two days of the annual parliamentary session.
As was the case five years ago when Xi’s previous term was also approved unanimously, the vote by the largely ceremonial legislature was more of a political gesture showing the Chinese political elite’s unequivocal loyalty and deference.
The display gives Xi a strong mandate for the next five years as the country’s most powerful leader in decades.
Xi, who leads the ruling Communist Party, was also reappointed as head of the national Central Military Commission. He was already the head of an identical party body overseeing the People’s Liberation Army.
After the voting, Xi took a constitutional oath, as both the country’s president and head of its military – a symbolic move to show the significance of the constitution.
